Phaser
"Okay, make nice, give us the ray gun." - FBI Agent (1986) hand phaser, 2260s]] Phasers are the most common and standard weapon in the arsenal of Starfleet and several other powers. Descriptions and Uses "Phaser" is an acronym for '''PHAS'ed 'E'nergy 'R'ectification''. All phasers fire particle beams. Personal phasers can stun or kill an enemy. The stun setting can also be used for crowd control. Ship-mounted phasers can damage shields or other systems or even cut a vessel's hull. Phasers are based on the rapid nadion effect, whereby energy is passed through a special phaser crystal resulting in a discharge of short-lived nadion particles (often the detection of nadion discharges is a key sign that a battle has recently taken place). Nadion particles have varying effects on the subatomic bonds of particles with which they interact, largely depending on the mass of the atom in question. To wit, dense starship hulls are more resistant to nadion discharges than are humanoid lifeforms. The disruptive effects of nadion discharges can be moderated to produce varying effects (discussed below), ranging from benign to extremely destructive. Phasers, as particle beams, travel below the speed of light, seemingly varying according to the scale of their emitter. Personal phasers come in three types: The phaser type-1 (hand phaser) is small and can be concealed easily. The type 2 phaser is larger and hand-held. It has a similar emitter but has a longer hand grip, or a pistol grip, depending on the model. The phaser type-3 is also known as a "phaser rifle." It has a longer barrel, a stock, and may have a second grip. This weapon can fire beams or phaser pulses. Over centuries of use, there have been many models of the lightweight and effective phaser rifle. Beyond these, phasers are usually mounted devices, such as the phaser type-4 used on Starfleet shuttlecraft and other small vehicles, all the way up to the large phaser banks and phaser arrays of starships and space stations. Various classes of banks, arrays and emitters exist, such as the more powerful phaser type-8. :There may still yet be canonical confirmation that the phaser arrays of the are called "type-10 phasers", as this term was used by the technical production staff that contributed designs and specifications of the [[USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D)|''Enterprise-D]] during TNG.'' Phasers can be made to overload, either deliberately or by sabotage. One possible method to overload a phaser involves disengaging the safeties that normally manages the phaser's power system. This allows energy to be transferred from the power cell to the prefire chamber then back into the power cell faster than the cell can reabsorb the energy, causing the cell to overload. Phasers in the process of overloading emit a distinctive high-pitched whine. About sixty seconds after the overload started, the weapon would expend all of its remaining energy in an explosion capable of doing considerable damage to its surroundings. In 2266, Lenore Karidian attempted to murder James T. Kirk by hiding an overloading phaser in his cabin. ( ) In 2269, Kirk, McCoy, and Sulu were almost killed while on the Kalandan outpost planet, when its defensive computer fused the controls on Kirk's phaser, causing it to overload. ( ) Personal phasers are also used by Starfleet personnel as tools and not just weapons. The phaser can be used to heat rocks and stones for warmth. ( ) Worf also used his type-II phaser to drill a tunnel to infiltrate the Cardassian compound in a training simulation. ( ) Different models of phaser make different sounds when fired, depending on the model and setting. Federation phaser fire typically makes a high-pitched "whistling" or "tearing" sound, for example. A knowledgeable person can use the sound to differentiate between types. ( ; ) History The phaser design commonly used by Starfleet in the 23rd century and beyond was preceded by phase weapons, including the phase pistol and phase cannon, and were immediately preceded by types of laser weapons, such as the laser pistol. (Star Trek: Enterprise, all; ) Phaser technology was introduced by Starfleet as early as 2257, when a young James T. Kirk served as a phaser control operator aboard the . Phaser rifles were used as early as 2265, although at that time they were not part of a ship's standard weaponry, as officers were still armed with laser pistols. ( ) In the 24th century, regenerative phasers were designed to function in the presence of duonetic fields, plasma fields, and other environments in which a normal phaser would not operate. As a historical note, the weapon was chosen instead of the TR-116 for such operations. ( ) Sidearm settings Less-lethal settings An example of the peaceful progress of civilization, the 23rd and 24th century phaser includes several settings, all but the most powerful of which has a non-lethal stun effect. Although mostly harmless when used at a low setting, multiple phaser stuns can result in injury and death. ( ) When used at close range, a phaser set on stun is capable of inducing sufficient trauma as to kill if fired at a vital organ such as the brain. ( ) Types of phaser weapons There are at least twelve types of phasers of increasing size and capability: Types I, II, and III are personnel phasers, and Types IV through XII equip ships. *Phaser Type-I is a very small hand-held version. *Phaser Type-II is a larger sidearm-type weapon. A sleeker and more compact version was introduced in 2368. *Phaser Type-III is a rifle-sized weapon. These main types are further divided to distinguish the many variations and upgrades. * hand phaser ** phaser type-1 * phaser pistol ** type 2 phaser * phaser rifle ** compression phaser rifle ** Regalian phaser rifle * Bajoran phaser * Ferengi phaser * particle phaser * plasma phaser * pulse phaser Starship phasers The phasers mounted aboard starships are considerably more powerful than those used by Starfleet personnel, owing to the increased power reserves available. Early phasers, such as the MK IX/01 type found on the , were mounted in banks of one or two emitters, firing in either pulses or beams. This phaser design was retained on Starfleet ships until the , at which point phasers were installed in arrays of several (sometimes hundreds) emitters. These arrays enhanced both firing arcs as well as overall phaser output, the design benefiting from force-coupling all of the emitters in the array for the final composite beam. With the launch of the , phasers were again redesigned to fire pulses, though this time benefiting from the advances made with phaser arrays. Pulse phasers typically discharge several emitters internally to emit the final composite nadion burst. The ship's phasers do have a stun setting, and can be set for wide-beam. ( ) Types of starship phasers *Phaser Type-IV equip auxiliary craft like small shuttlecraft and shuttlepods *Type-V equip larger shuttlecraft *Type-VI equip the runabout *Type-X equip the starship and starship * phaser array ** phaser type-4 ** phaser type-8 * phaser bank ** ''Galor''-class phaser bank * phaser cannon ** pulse phaser cannon See also * * Phasers.net References * ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** *' * ** ** ** ** * ** ** ** ** ** * ** Background Phaser settings The Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual lists the various settings for Type-1 and Type-2 phasers, though only a few have been mentioned on screen. *Type-1 phasers have the first eight settings; Type-2 phasers have all sixteen settings: *# Light Stun - can cause minor injury in humanoids; target may be rendered helpless for short period; usually non-lethal even with long duration blast. *# Stun - short duration blast can render humanoid helpless or even unconscious; risk of injury is serious for long duration blasts. *# Heavy Stun - humanoids are usually knocked unconscious from short duration blast; can cause serious injury; can kill when used for long duration. *# Light Thermal Effects - extensive neural damage and skin burns to humanoids; causes metals to retain heat if applied for over five seconds; short duration blast can kill humanoids. *# Heavy Thermal Effects - severe skin burns to humanoids; can penetrate simple personal force fields; short duration blasts are usually deadly. *# Disruptive Effects - matter disassociates and deeply penetrates organic tissue; can heat objects; any contact by humanoids is usually lethal. *# Disruptive Effects - kills humanoids; disruption becomes widespread. *# Disruptive Effects - vaporizes humanoid organisms; chances of survival are slim, even from a short duration blast. *# Disruption Effects - medium alloy or ceramic structural materials over 100cm thickness begin exhibiting energy rebound prior to vaporization. *# Disruption Effects - heavy alloy or ceramic structural materials absorb or rebound energy. 0.55 sec delay before material vaporizes. *# Explosive/Disruption Effects - ultra-dense alloy structural materials absorb/rebound energy before vaporization. *# Explosive/Disruption Effects - ultra-dense alloy structural materials absorb/rebound energy .vaporization appears within 0.1 sec. *# Explosive/Disruption Effects - shielded matter exhibits minor vibration heating effects. *# Explosive/Disruption Effects - shielded matter exhibits medium vibration heating effects. *# Explosive/Disruption Effects - shielded matter exhibits major vibration heating effects. *# Explosive/Disruption Effects - shielded matter exhibits light mechanical fracturing damage. Effects The only picture so far shown of a starship's phaser emitter is found on the episode , where Scotty is looking over a diagram clearly marked as a 'MK IX/01' phaser diagram. The diagram itself, however, is taken from maintenance manual for one of the large-scale water heaters found on Desilu's production lots. Phasers are often seen vaporizing or disintegrating matter. However, if vaporization were, in fact, occurring, a tremendous amount of heat would be liberated by the sudden conversion of a great deal of biomatter to vapor. For instance, if a person were instantly vaporized into carbon-dioxide, enough heat would be released to seriously injure or destroy objects within a radius of several meters. The nadion effect may result in matter-neutrino conversion, resulting in exotic particles. This is one possible explanation for the varied effects phasers seem to have on their targets (particularly the Klingon soldier who is thrown through the air by Kirk's phaser blast in Star Trek III). The images included above in the description of the Type-1 power settings are most of the few times we clearly see the damage caused by higher settings LESS than those causing vaporization of the target. Most of the time the production team just used "squib" explosions at the point of impact, with no other damage to the target (probably for budgetary reasons). Commenting on phaser firepower, Ronald D. Moore said: :"The weapons are way too powerful to present them in any realistic kind of way. Given the real power of a hand phaser, we shouldn't be able to show ANY firefights on camera where the opponents are even in sight of each other, much less around the corner! It's annoying, but just one of those things that we tend to slide by in order to concentrate on telling a dramatic and interesting story." http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/6952/ron53.txt Phaser types The Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual mentions that "certain large dedicated planetary phasers defense emitters are designated as Type-X+" (page 123). The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual asserts that Deep Space 9 was equipped with Type-IX, -X, and -XI emitters, the last deploying from bays within the habitat ring. It is possible that the mounts Type-IX arrays as well. Behind-the-scenes information indicates that the mounts Type-XII arrays. Neither the Type-IX, -XI, nor -XII phasers have been mentioned on screen. Category:Weapons cs:Phaser de:Phaser es:Phaser